Tuesday, June 19, 2007

And that reason is that apparently he's smoked his brain cells into retirement. Basically ticked off about all the talk that Beckham is coming to the US for a nice little semiretirement, Alexi Lalas popped off and said something completely ludicrous. That being that the MLS is on par with the English Premiership. Here's his dumb ass quote:

"The fact that a segment of the world worships an inferior product in the Premiership is their business,'' Lalas said in an interview with The Guardian published Tuesday. "In England, our league is considered second class, but I honestly believe if you took a helicopter and grabbed a bunch of MLS players and took them to the perceived best league in the world they wouldn't miss a beat and the fans wouldn't notice any drop in quality.''

Wow someone has lost his mind. First of all the Premiership dwarfs the MLS in every single economical aspect, which gives them the leverage to sign the absolute best international players. Hell the richest of the rich Americans have gone out and bought Manchester United and Arsenal. And Chelsea is owned by a multibillionaire. The MLS has a team salary cap that can fit under 75% of the Premiership players yearly salary. Secondly, the best of the best Americans aren't even on the best Premiership teams, they play for Fulham a team that finishes in the middle of the pack. Thirdly, the Premiership had 3 of the 4 finalists in the UEFA Champions League this season, throw an MLS team in that and they wouldn't even make pool play. Alexi I know you love American soccer but shut up.

Oh and he didn't stop there apparently he thinks Beckham will be bigger than Tiger and MJ:

"The U.S. will never have dealt with an athlete who has had this kind of international impact,'' Lalas told The Mirror. "Tiger Woods has that international appeal but, with due respect to Woods and Michael Jordan, David Beckham is at an entirely different level.''

Someone please keep all hallucinogens away from Alexi for the remainder of his future as if he continues at this pace he just might end up like Jim Carey's Riddler at the end of Batman Forever.

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comments:

Honestly I think his comments were pretty smart, but not in a logical type of play.

I think even he knows that MLS couldn't compete with the EPL at all. Not even close. MLS clubs would have trouble competing in lower tier leagues like Scottish, French and Dutch.

But MLS isn't as bad as many people believe. By saying what he did, basically overexaggerating his comments, he has brought publicity to the league, and also called-out soccer professionals who are too good for MLS to take a look at MLS.

For example his comments got the Brittish press to actually watch a couple games, and got on ESPN.com, foxsports.com and numerous blogs around the country (including yours).

So yeah the content of what he said is absurdm, but sating the comments was a pretty smart thing to do.

In between his absurd points, Lalas does make one good point. In that the EPL the last several years have been an inferior product that have gotten by on marketing. Only their comparison is to other top European leagues. Heck, even the Argentine and the Brazilian leagues are better than the MLS (while you are at it, toss in the J-League too).

Oh, Fulham isn't a middle of the pack EPL team, they are a relegation contender every year. It's always a surprise when they finish mid-table or higher.

Somehow I think the MLS teams would manage to compete with Kilmarnock and Motherwell.

He's right though about how top-heavy the Premier League is. The season's basic trajectory is a foregone conclusion. Will Chelsea win or ManU - only time will tell? Also, how much better than MLS would it be if they only had English players?

Beckham is a bigger sell than any other athlete on the planet. One of the main reasons Real Madrid bought him was to sell merchandise in Asia, where he is worshipped. The top 5 teams in MLS could very well compete in any second tier league in the world. The on field product is better this year and more entertaining than any since 2000. And you need to look at his whole context. He's mad because American players are looked down upon by the soccer intelligentsia of Europe. that's why he spouted off.

Yeah, you're 100% right. I said the same thing on my blog earlier today (shameless plug in 3...2...1...http://mynameiswillie.wordpress.com/2007/06/19/please-stop-talking/

I know he's trying to promote the MLS, but he's such a dumbass when he does it. Didn't his new prize play in the Premier League for a number of years? Yes. How many Americans are there that matter on Cup-winning teams like Chelsea, Liverpool, Arsenal, etc.? Um, none. Do us all a favor and shut up, Alexi.

A) Who cares if the Premiership is only 25% English? It's still one of the top leagues in the world, mostly because it can attract and pay big time foreign stars.

B) I don't care how out of context the quotes are, they are still incredibly stupid. And it's not like this is the first time Lalas has shown blind patriotism.

C) He should just get it in his skull that Americans will never get into something that is second rate compared to the rest of the world. If MLS had the best talent in the world people would watch. But there's no way it could ever get the financial backing to bring in the best players in the world.

The quality of play might be closer than perceived, but theres no comparison to the popularity of EPL over MLS. I know you can order the EPL through dish network I don't even know where to watch MLS, maybe its blacked out on vs network with hockey.